„Increasing the language competences of the Roma national minority – “BETTER TOMORROW“ Erasmus Project

Project Title

„Increasing the language competences of the Roma national minority – “BETTER TOMORROW“

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Romas and/or other minorities; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project ˝Better Tomorrow˝ is being developed by partners from 5 European countries (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Serbia) engaged in adult and Roma education with the aim of enabling them to acquire knowledge and skills for integration into the local community, with the ultimate employment outcome. The analysis showed that the problem in the home countries was the lack of multilingual teaching content in the Roma educational institution. Strategic partnerships and needs analysis through the project will create innovative online content for language teaching for Roma employment.

The result of the project will be an innovative web platform with modules that will have content in Roma on the one hand, and in Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Italian and English on the other.
The aim of the project is to provide innovative methods and content for teaching Roma in the field of language competences. Innovation is achieved through a multilingual web platform and content that will be created through the collaboration of all partners. Education at EU level stands out as a major driver of society and innovation and development, which is also recognized by the EU 2020 Strategy, and the development of this platform and the use of technology for learning and inclusion enables Roma to strengthen their skills in accessing the labor market, thus contributing to their social and economic empowerment, which will in turn have positive effects on society as a whole by reducing the unemployment rate.
The project consortium brings together experts from the field of work with Roma, and the synergy in the partnership will be ensured by the experience of the partners:
– years of experience in educating and knowing Roma as a target group: Bayash, Sinti and other Roma groups
– as many as 4 partner organizations employ Roma native speakers of Romani language with completed faculties in the languages of partner countries, they have key knowledge to create a multilingual platform.

The target groups are:
– 10 experts who are engaged to work with the Roma will be involved in research, short-term staff training and the development of an innovative web platform for raising the linguistic competences of the Roma
– NGOs and governmental organizations and associations dealing with Roma issues, stakehol-ders in the adult education sector
– 120 Roma involved in research, 50 involved in piloting program implementation
– 100 participants in the multiplying event “A Meeting to Promote Innovative Methods in Tea-ching Language Competencies”; representatives of NGOs and governmental organizations and associations dealing with Roma issues and stakeholders.

There are two intellectual results:
– IO1 Needs report and recommendations for future platform content
– IO2 An innovative web platform with multilingual language learning modules.

The main project activities that have intellectual outputs are:
1) Conducting needs research
2) Curriculum developed with content and topics that will enable the target group easier access to the labor market and which will be developed in Italian, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian and English
3) Training of experts for 10 people who will increase their competences for working with Ro-ma
4) Conducting user training on the newly established web-based language learning platform
5) Organizing events with multiplying effect
6) Transnational and other partner meetings.

To make the project widely available and out of partnership, the research results and the entire innovative platform and content will be translated into English as well, all of which will be free of charge and accessible on an innovative web platform that will be adapted for smartphones as well. Project ˝Better Tomorrow˝ contributes to enhancing their language competences and en-hancing the competencies of Roma professionals through innovative approach and education based on ICT targeting Roma. This project also contributes to the implementation of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies differences between Roma and other people in 4 key areas: education, employment, health and housing (European Commission, 2011). This new approach to enhancing the linguistic competences of Roma contributes to their greater competitiveness and easier employment, especially at local and international level and integration, as one of the key problems at EU level.
In October 2017, the European Council called for education and training systems to be “adapted to the digital age”, in May 2018, in the Council Recommendations on key competences for life-long learning, and that Member States should work to improve the language competences of the official and other languages The project introduces new and improved practices that meet the needs of disadvantaged groups, thereby reducing their socioeconomic inequality.
This innovative approach to strengthening linguistic competences contributes to reducing the disadvantaged Roma and their socio-economic inequalitis.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 163557 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sportsko učilište PESG & Country: HR

Project Partners

• UDRUGA ROMSKOG PRIJATELJSTVA “LUNA”
• ROMNI -APS
• Udruzenje Romkinja
• DRUSTVO ZA RAZVIJANJE PROSTOVOLJNEGA DELA NOVO MESTO